The

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

, a collection of five freshwater lakes located in North America, have been sailed upon since at least the 17th century, and thousands of ships have been sunk while traversing them. Many of these ships were never found, so the exact number of shipwrecks in the Lakes is unknown; the

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located at the Whitefish Point Light Station north of Paradise in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The light station property was transferred to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GL ...

estimates 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost, while historian and mariner Mark Thompson has estimated that the total number of wrecks is likely more than 25,000. In the period between 1816, when the ''Invincible'' was lost, to the sinking of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' in 1975, the

Whitefish Point Whitefish Point is a cape of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, United States, marking the entry point of Whitefish Bay. It is north of the unincorporated community of Paradise, Michigan. Whitefish Point is known for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum ...

area alone has claimed at least 240 ships.

Lake Superior

Lake Huron

Lake Michigan

Lake Erie

Lake Ontario

Largest wrecks

References

External links

The Great Lakes Shipwreck File
a list maintained by David D. Swayze which details over 4,900 shipwrecks.

by the Wayback Machine.)
Great Lakes Hold Fortune in Treasure
, ''Port Light'', Volume 3, Number 43, Door County, Wisconsin, November 15, 1945, page 3

* Thumbnail histories, descriptions and locations of more than 1,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks located to date. * . A guide to hundreds of northern Lake Michigan shipwrecks. * Detailed stories of 100 significant shipwrecks, plus, in appendices, brief information about several hundreds more. * Detailed stories of 100 significant shipwrecks, plus, in appendices, brief information about several hundreds more. * Identifies 110 wreck locations. * Identifies 103 wreck locations. * Identifies 45 wreck locations. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shipwrecks in the Great Lakes *

Shipwrecks in the Great Lakes A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

Shipwrecks A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

Michigan transportation-related lists